User blog:Deadcoder/Deadcoder's Reviews: Frontier
While season 1 was good, it had more obvious filler than Jeri Ryan's boobs. However, there were still a few episodes that weren't pure filler, like Ghost Channel, Code: Earth, False Start; and the arc with the Guardians. Frontier is in both camps. Yes, it's filler that doesn't further an arc, but at the same time, it affected other episodes. This was the first episode that wasn't X.A.N.A.'s attack of the week. Looking back on it, it was probably what gave the writers the determination to break out of that box, and make Ghost Channel, which would give them the power to make the later episodes. So while Frontier was filler, it was filler that gave rise to proto-substance, which gave rise to substance; kind of like Jeri Ryan, who was padding who became a source of substance. Frontier was also important for a different reason: It did something new with Jeremie. For a long time, Jeremie's only position was to be the one who operated the supercomputer with a creepy obsession with Aelita. Many of us were waiting to see him go to Lyoko. It brought up several questions: "Why does Jeremie never go? Why do none of the other characters operate the machine?" Frontier existed to address this problem. Now, since the writers actually saw a problem with their show and tried to fix it in an interesting way, they automatically get a bonus point on the scale of 0-10 where 10 is amazing and 0 is Melanie Tran's acting. Let us begin: =The Review= Frontier starts off with Jeremie working on Aelita's Materialization Program. He runs into a problem. The two have a minor fight, and like many couples, Aeltia leaves for the night after a fight. Jeremie is remorseful about it. The next day, Yumi arrives in the recycled footage mobile. We find out that Ulrich and Odd were up late the previous night, playing a Tetris knockoff. I would like to point out that the game console is held up by nothing. Yumi talks to Jeremie, and as usual, he's stressed about Aeltia. But unusually, there's more to it. As per usual, the class is covering linear graphing, which takes a while because french is designed to make math stupid. Jeremie reveals to Ulrich and Odd that he yelled at Aelita, and after some potty humor that detracts from the scene, he reveals that he wants to go to Lyoko to apologize. Reality then persists, with the teacher noticing them talking. She then notices Odd sleeping. Tubanoise. As all of my regulars know, I am no fan of Jeremie and Aeltia anymore, for essentially murdering their child. On top of that, I think their relationship is inappropriate. I mean she has died 13 times, and he's into her. He's a necrophile. She's 23 and he's 13. She is a pedophile. I'm all for free love, but a pedophile and necrophile dating is just going too far. Between that and the child murder, I think their relationship is horrifying. However, this episode makes me think otherwise. I think Jeremie is the best thing that ever happened to Aelita. Sadly, he was the first man in her life that wasn't completely insane. He was the one who stood up for her and worked to rescue her from the supercomputer. Though they are horrible people, he is a good person to her. Make what you will of this. Yumi later hears of the idea, and disapproves of it since Jeremie is the only one who can use it. Frankly, I agree with her. Ulrich is unreliable. Odd is an idiot. Aelita is suicidal. Yumi is too busy using her common sense as compensation for them; so she can't operate it. Consequently, Jeremie is really the only one who can use it. The show's explanation is that he's the only one smart enough. I guess both explanations are correct. But Jeremie asks that Yumi cover for him. This also makes sense that since he's the Genius and she's the only one with any common sense, he would go to her. She still thinks it's a bad idea, but he pleads, and Odd points out that a XANA attack won't be an issue. She can barely compensate for Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich; so having Jeremie against her tips the scale. She agrees off screen. Yumi is the one doomed with the task of operating the machine. Jeremie's notes are the size of a phone book, proving the theory that manual size and the chance of doom are equivalent. Odd and Ulrich are standing by to see if he chickens out. DON'T GO IN JEREMIE! THE DRAMATIC MUSIC IS PLAYING! He goes in anyway. As both clues and common sense have predicted, the process gets screwed up. The scanner starts to make that noise that my printer made the second time it caught on fire. Yumi is the reasonable one, not the sane technically inclined one. Using her was what caused this mess. They know that they need a sane technical person, not just common sense. Thanks to Jeremie using Yumi, who was unqualified, they don't have one of those. So they use a crazy tech person instead: Aelita; starting the show's tradition of using her as backup Jeremie. According to Aelita, he's stuck in the show's representation of a swap partition, a golden digital purgatory. Since he's eating up a bunch of swap memory, and the system has severe restrictions about what memory can be used for what "this isn't actually said, but it fits with what is known" Jeremie tells Aelita via her obscure connection to Lyoko that they need memory. She explains what's going on: she's listening to a voice that only exists in her head. The other characters aren't really shocked by this. We see her defenseless in the Ice Sector, proving that earlier today, she decided 0 out of the Aelita options. As to why XANA hasn't attacked her, my best guess is he's depressive today. We find out that they need to go to 4 specific towers, and gain enough memory to get Jeremie out. Aelita then starts running to a tower. Ulrich tells Yumi that it wasn't her fault, since he's the only one who can operate it correctly. Odd has an idiotic moment. Yumi regains enough self esteem to use her common sense again, and tells them to go back to school, since all 4 of them missing would be suspicious. Cue the recycled footage, and Mrs. Hertz notices that Jeremie is missing. Odd covers for him implying constipation and a possible enema. I'm not exaggerating. That's actually what's implied. On Lyoko, we see Aelita arrive at the second tower in the Desert Sector. She gets the memory at the fastest speed that the recycled footage will let her. Ulrich and Odd relive Yumi, so she can go to class. We then see Aelita arrive in the Forest Sector, and not notice a Kankrelat. She runs to the battle music and a Kankrelat appears. More Kankrelats appear. She encounters the Aelita options! :0. Act suicidal and/or crazy. :1. Attack it with a long single note of angry music. :2. Have an argument with it. :3. Use Energy Fields. It's not season 3 yet, so 3 is out. The kankrelats are too dumb to live, so an argument would degrade into Youtube comments. The musical score is trying to kill them this episode, so music is out. SUICIDE IT IS! She makes a jump to a nearby platform and barely misses falling to her doom. This works, and after a brief cut to Yumi, we see Aelita in the mountain sector. The final tower is guarded, and Aelita's connection is degrading. Luckily, they think of a plan: get enough memory so that they can operate one scanner, and send Ulrich or Odd to unblock the tower. So they send Yumi to get one of Jeremie's. While they wait, Odd plays Tetris with the sounds of Donkey Kong. Yumi gets caught by Jim, and they realize that they need to get her out. Since Mr. Delmas is a pushover, they go to Sissi. She appreciates the situation, and frankly, if I was in her position, I would go to him and say that Ulrich attacked her; since that man-stealing ho is in the principal's office and she can take out the man who dumped her in one move. Sissi shows the dark side of love that keeps people in bad relationships, and agrees to help, if he is nice to her. He makes a counter bid to be an escort. Welcome to Code Lyoko, where child prostitution complies with gender equality laws. Yumi gets out scott-free because Sissi. Ulrich explains that he's rather not talk about what he had to do. Back on Lyoko, Aelita runs from the blocks with inappropriate noises, and destorys one of them with incompetence; the second leading cause of death in this series. Awkward elevator scene. They are a few bytes short, so they buy additional memory with the power of tetris knockoffs! Ulrich arrives, and saves Aelita. Aelita makes it to the tower, and reuses the same shot for the forth time. She enters the virtual memory for no other reason than softcore fanservice. In a microcosm of the show, the 2d animation touches 3d animation, creating something beautiful. Jeremie returns, unconscious. Even though they didn't use the Return to the Past, the episode still ends with some mild comedy. Jeremie and Aelita make up, and Yumi and Ulrich fight, again. Aelita and Jeremie give the Yumi-Ulrich relationship the mockery it deserves. Review Summary This had some major audio issues. However, it was still good. This episode existed to address several issues with the series. However, it addressed others as well. Ulrich is actually sane and Odd is less of an idiot than usual. The episode was innovative by the standard at the time, and I think it was the first episode we saw all 4 sectors in. Overall rating: 9/10. Category:Blog posts Category:Frontier